The original Fastpitch Chronicle was published in August of 1988 just before the International Softball Congress World Tournament in Decatur, Illinois. It was printed on 8.5x11 inch paper and distributed free at the World Tournament. In Sepember of 1988 the 100th subscription payment was received and publisher Bob Tomlinson started building the newsletter into what turned out to be the largest fastpitch softball publication in the history of the sport.
The "Chronicle" as it came to be called by the people who read it grew into a publication that was printed on "broadsheet" sized newsprint and was read by more than 35,000 people each month. The paper covered the fastpitch world on a global scale and included information about men's, women's, boy's and girl's fastpitch.
In 1999 the first Fastpitch Chronicle website was created. As the world wide web and internet developed the subscription numbers for the monthly newspaper dwindled until the publisher was forced to "bury" the paper in 2004.
That didn't halt the dealings of The Fastpitch Chronicle however. Bob built a new website and began focusing on Wisconsin High School girl's softball. He built anetwork of coaches who became a pool of rankers and The Fastpitch Chronicle Statewide Rankings were born.. The rankings continue to be done by a pool of experts each season. He began compiling a Coaches' Honor Roll for Wisconsin High School coaches whereby coaches can submit their coaching wins etc. and be added to the lists that are kept up to date. Categories include: Career wins, Conference Championships Won, State Tournament Championships won, State Runner-Up Finishes; Number of State Tournaments coached in and in 2012 he added a category called "Final Fours" coached in. In 2008 Bob entered into an agreement with wissports.net whereby he became the softball content provider for the wissports.net site.
Now Bob has entered into aother new agreement with wissports.net whereby a new Fastpitch Chronicle website has been developed and is partnered with the wissports.net softball content.
Check out all the pages within the website. Bob has embarked on a mission to list state records.
